Fast, actionable advice from Founders, CEOs, and Investors

Seth Godin (Founder at Yoyodyne Entertainment) Seth’s Blog: The train is comingAction means change and change means fear, so of course we shouldn’t be surprised that people (and organizations) are often as motivated by the fear of loss as they are by the desire for gain.

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCFor high-value partnerships, I always try to build a relationship on multiple levels, e.g. between the two day-to-day partnership managers, between the two VP-level managers responsible for those partnership, and ideally also between two or more C-level execs. Having these multi-level relationships gives you more flexibility in dealing with your partners. In certain scenarios bottoms-up approaches might work better and you want to convince the … (read more)

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCAlways be responsive – A pet peeve of mine. I think it is disrespectful not to respond to companies or people reaching out for various reasons. The only things I usually do not respond to are blatantly obvious sales pitches.

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCDon’t rush, don’t annoy – Always remember that you are working in a dynamic start-up while some of the bigger organizations you are trying to partner with have heaps of processes and check-points that decisions have to go through. I remember from my time at two of those large organizations, in my case Deutsche Telekom and Yahoo!, that people in those organizations could get frustrated with impatient partners banging on their doors all the time.

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCCan’t close? Regroup, analyze, and adapt if possible – Don’t beat a dead horse. If a deal cannot get done, and there might be many good reasons, regroup and think why the partnership did not make sense for the potential partner.

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCOwn your partners, not just deals – There is a fundamental difference between Business Development and Partner Management. In many large organizations you have a dedicated BD team that flies in to negotiate and close a deal and then moves on to the next deal with another partner

Hunter Walk (Founder & Partner at Homebrew) Let’s Meet: How to Prevent Big Companies from Wasting Your Startup’s Time | Hunter Walk1. Don’t take the meeting unless you know what you want to get out of it. You don’t actually have to meet with BigCo, especially if they won’t tell you what the goal/agenda is, who will be in the room, etc. 2. Make sure the right people are in the room. You want an informed decision maker in the room. If you get stonewalled on this request, ask what data/information can you provide in advance to make it worth this person’s time to attend. 3. Unle… (read more)

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCDon’t over-commit, internally or externally – With many partnership opportunities, you only have a few potentially only one shot at getting it right, so it is critical that what you commit to towards the partner is actually something that your company can deliver.

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCCreate clear BD targets – This goes without saying, but it is worth repeating. Without clear targets, a BD team will aimlessly chase deals and in the worst case have a distracting effect on the rest of the organization by creating deals that are not core to the company but take up valuable executive, product, and engineering resources. Ideally, BD targets are a subset of the overall company goals (e.g. grow the user base, expand internationally… (read more)

Holger Luedorf (SVP Business @ Postmates) Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101 – AVCRelay partner feedback back into your own organization – The BD team is usually one of the most outward facing teams in a start-up and as such you will be able to collect a ton of valuable feedback for company.